ZOMBA

city, southern Malawi. It lies on the lower slopes of Zomba Mountain in the Shire Highlands, 37 miles (60 km) northeast of Blantyre. Established in 1885 as a planters' settlement, from 1891 it was the centre for the administration of the British Central African Protectorate (later Nyasaland) and the capital of independent Malawi from 1966 until 1975, when the new capital was opened at Lilongwe. The former residency (1887), designed to provide protection from slave traders, still stands by the Mulunguzi River and is now used as a government rest house. A new residence was later built at State House, which is now the seat of Malawi's president. The town still houses the Parliament Building (1957), where the Parliament met until 1994, and various government offices. Since the establishment in 1974 of Chancellor College, a new campus of the University of Malawi, Zomba has changed in character from a government centre to a university town. The town is the centre for the tobacco and dairy farms of the surrounding area, which also produces rice, corn (maize), fish, and softwoods. Pop. (1987) 43,250.